Labour pledges a revolution in green energy to aboost jobs and slash emissionsa

• Keir Starmer: aThe hope of a Labour victory has turned into a beliefa

Keir Starmer will pledge to deliver a new era of economic growth and permanently lower energy bills by turning the UK into an independent green asuperpowera before 2030, through a massive expansion of wind and solar energy.

Announcing details of the plan exclusively to the Observer, the Labour leader says he will double the amount of onshore wind, triple solar and more than quadruple offshore wind power, are-industrialisinga the country to create a zero carbon, self-sufficient electricity system, by the end of this decade.

Fresh wave of protests across Russia on Saturday after Putinas apartial mobilisationa of civilian men

• See all our Ukraine coverage

Russia launched renewed strikes on Ukrainian cities on Saturday, as Moscowas mobilisation drive to refresh its struggling war effort continued to provide scenes of chaos across Russia.

Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the city of Zaporizhzhia, killing one person and injuring seven others, and said a total of three people were killed and 19 injured in strikes across the south and east of the country.

Tories are nervous of the asong and dancea about doing more for high earners and the shift away from levelling-up

Liz Truss is being warned that she risks abandoning a winning coalition of voters in the ared walla as she pursues acavaliera tax cuts, amid revelations that her giveaway package disproportionately benefits more traditional Conservative heartlands.

With huge nervousness among MPs over the APS45bn tax-cutting package announced on Friday, including abolition of the top rate tax band and the end of the bankersa bonus cap, several Conservatives said they feared the new prime minister has already shifted away from the levelling up agenda that helped secure red wall seats from Labour in the Midlands and north of England.

Demonstrations that began with death of Mahsa Amini while detained by morality police pose biggest threat to regime in 13 years

Iranas president has vowed to adeal decisivelya with protests that are gathering momentum across much of the country one week after the death of a woman in custody who had been detained by the morality police.

Demonstrations have spread to most of Iranas 31 provinces and almost all urban centres, pitting anti-government demonstrators against regime forces, including the military, and posing the most serious test to the hardline stateas authority in more than 13 years.

Black marble stone in St Georgeas Chapel, Windsor, bears names of late monarch, her husband and parents

The first picture of the new ledger stone marking Queen Elizabeth IIas final resting place in Windsor has been released.

The hand-carved Belgian black marble slab bears in brass lettering the names of the Queen, her husband, Prince Philip, and her parents, George VI and Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

Defra accused of aall-out attacka on environment by wildlife groups

The government is to scrap the aBrexit bonusa which would have paid farmers and landowners to enhance nature, in what wildlife groups are calling an aall-out attacka on the environment, the Observer can reveal.

Instead, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) sources disclosed, they are considering paying landowners a yearly set sum for each acre of land they own, which would be similar to the much-maligned EU basic payments scheme of the common agricultural policy.

Yareni Rios-Gonzales hospitalized after officers fail to pull her from car they had parked on tracks

A dramatic video released by Colorado authorities shows the moment a freight train hit a police patrol cruiser parked on the train tracks with a person handcuffed in the backseat.

The video, which was released on Friday by the Platteville and Fort Lupton police departments, shows how Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, 20, was hurt after officers from both agencies detained her in a patrol car on 16 September as they searched her pickup truck for weapons.

Post-tropical cyclone reaches Gulf of St Lawrence after racing through Nova Scotia forcing evacuations

Powerful storm Fiona ripped into eastern Canada on Saturday with hurricane-force winds, forcing evacuations, knocking down trees and powerlines, and reducing many homes on the coast to ajust a pile of rubble in the oceana.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the centre of the storm, downgraded to post-tropical cyclone Fiona, had reached the Gulf of St Lawrence after racing through Nova Scotia.

Giorgia Meloni, who leads Brothers of Italy, looks likely to become the first woman to head a government

Italians were braced for seismic change on Saturday, on the eve of an election forecasted to hand Italy the most rightwing government since the second world war.

Giorgia Meloni, the head of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, is widely tipped to become the countryas first woman to head a government.

Royal drama, which will star Imelda Staunton as the Queen and Jonathan Pryce as Philip, will be streamed from 9 November

The fifth series of Netflixas royal drama The Crown will launch on 9 November, it has been announced.

The date was shared during Netflixas Tudum global fan event, which showcased upcoming series and films from the streamer a including a sneak peek at the third series of Bridgerton and a first look at Shonda Rhimesa Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, a prequel centred on Queen Charlotteas rise to prominence and power.

Pink Floyd co-founder's stance on Russia's war against Ukraine has sparked aindignationa in KrakA3w

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has cancelled concerts planned in Poland amid outrage over his stance on Russiaas war against Ukraine, Polish media reported on Saturday.

An official with the Tauron Arena in KrakA3w, where the musician was scheduled to perform two concerts in April 2023, said they would no longer take place.

As men of fighting age flee the draft, observers say Kremlin should be more worried about mounting anger away from the cities

• See all our Ukraine coverage

In a caricature by the countryas most prominent political cartoonist, Sergey Elkin, Vladimir Putin is standing on top of the Kremlin wall with his arms outstretched.

aSo what else do I need to do for you guys to finally start rebelling,a Putin asks, with a look of desperation.

Ukrainians in newly liberated Balakliia describe how occupiers had been plotting the sham referendum on Moscowas annexation

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

Balakliiaas only functioning shop was packed. Residents who had spent six months under Russian occupation queued to buy bread, salami and frozen mackerel. aWhen the Russians arrived I lost 10 kilograms. My wife lost eight kilograms. There was almost nothing to eat for the first two months,a one customer, Valery, recalled. Showing off his reduced waistline, he joked grimly: aThatas the upside of Moscow rule.a

Russian troops came to Balakliia in March. This was soon after Vladimir Putinas invasion. They raised a Russian tricolour above the modern brick town administration building, and parked their tanks in a sprawling factory. Two weeks ago the Ukrainian army chased them out in a dramatic counter-offensive. Kyiv reclaimed almost all of the Kharkiv region, an area half the size of Wales.

UN says Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine; Finland bars Russian tourists amid long queues to cross border after Putinas military mobilisation

• See all our Ukraine coverage

Experts believe Australians are at risk of serious mental and physical harm unless the industry is cleaned up and professionalised

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Zeinab Zeineddine had been getting injected with filler for a few years before it all went horribly wrong.

In early 2021, the western Sydney resident went to a nurse who ran a local cosmetic injectables clinic and asked her for aa little bit of a top-up on my cheeks, a little bit of chin, a little bit of jawlinea.

As a sleep coach, I regularly meet people who have atried everythinga to get more sleep. They have read every article on the subject and devoured every tip on the internet and then adjusted and readjusted their routines based on the advice they have found. Many of them are doing all the right things a spending time winding down before bed, curbing screen time, meditating a but still they struggle. The problem is that when it comes to sleep, unlike almost every other area of life, effort is not rewarded. In fact, it is actively punished. The more you try, the less you are likely to succeed.

This is because sleep is a passive process, like breathing or digesting. It cannot be controlled and nothing we can do can force it to happen. If we can stop trying, sleep will naturally follow. But not trying to sleep is extremely hard, especially when you are exhausted and desperate. Instead, I get my clients to shift their attention towards the main causes of sleeplessness: lack of sleep drive and hyperarousal. Tackling these two factors (which happily respond very well to a bit of effort) can then create the right conditions to allow sleep to happen all on its own.

Find a course at one of the top universities in the country. Our league tables rank them all subject by subject, as well as by student satisfaction, staff numbers, spending and career prospects

Money spent on the green transition or skills would reap a dividend. But this cash is just going to the rich

The billions of pounds of extra borrowing signalled by Kwasi Kwarteng in his not-so-mini budget can be justified as long as the money isnat flushed down the toilet.

Funds for renewable energy projects or to boost skills training would generate a return over the next decade.

The cityas bounce-back from the pandemic hasnat been helped by a shortage of staff and fewer people looking to party

New York is the city that never sleeps. Or is it? Post-pandemic, short-staffed restaurants are closing earlier and the cityas late-night bars, gyms and clubs are less plentiful than they once were.

Amid the economic stress, back-to-work drive, crime and other quality of life issues facing the metropolis, mayor Eric Adams and the cityas Office of Nightlife are fighting to reclaim the small hours and get New Yorkers back to showing off their moves on the dancefloors.

The actoras new role as a country singer is the latest step on her journey from British tabloid darling to established star

Anna Friel started out singing. Now she is back, doing it again, for all America to hear. As a child in Rochdale she listened to her Irish father playing folk tunes on his guitar, and with her friends Clare and Louise started Cal, a band named after their initials.

This month Frielas image is up on hoardings across LA because she is at the centre of Monarch, a new, all-singing small-screen drama about another musical family a fictional country music stars the Romans.

A Guardian interview earlier this month with the late author of the Wolf Hall trilogy was one to be forever grateful for, says its writer

It was not even three weeks ago that I spent time with Hilary and she seemed absolutely well: lively, full of enthusiasm, fun. But the main thing on her mind was that she and her husband, Gerald McEwen, were due to move to Ireland, where I live, and she was so looking forward to it.

She wrote me a lovely note after the interview, imagining with pleasure her future in Ireland. Shead been thinking of moving for a few years a partly because she has Irish heritage and partly as a result of Brexit and the general political situation in the UK.

The author on his latest awhole-lifea novel, the brutal realities of modern publishing and the inspirational influence of Catch-22

William Boyd, 70, is the author of 26 books, including Any Human Heart (2002) a adapted for television in 2010 with three actors playing the lead role of Logan Mountstuart a and Restless, the Costa novel of the year in 2006. His new book, The Romantic, is set in the 19th century and presents itself as a biographical fiction inspired by the personal papers of one Cashel Greville Ross, a Scots-born Irishman who fought at Waterloo, met Shelley, smuggled Greek antiquities and set out in search of the source of the Nile, among other adventures. Boyd, whom Sebastian Faulks has called athe finest storyteller of his generationa, grew up in Ghana and Nigeria and lives in London and the Dordogne, from where he spoke over Zoom.

Where did this novel begin?
My mid-20s were steeped in Romantic poetry because I spent eight years at Oxford not finishing a PhD on Shelley. Iave always felt that nothing is wasted, and I was asking myself how I could recycle this material when I read The Life of Henry Brulard, the fantastically modern-feeling autobiography by [the 19th-century French writer] Stendhal, who I donat think is much read in UK literary circles. He called himself a romantic because he kept falling in love a he felt it was a curse a and I decided that this store of knowledge I had about Romantic poets could gel with writing about someone with that kind of temperament.

How does writing a awhole lifea novel a this is your fourth a compare with writing your thrillers?
Itas more challenging. In a tightly structured spy novel like Restless, the plot machinery is part of the allure. Here, the narrative has to seem like itas happening randomly, like life, yet it canat flag: Cashel is 82 when he dies, and you canat write a 5,000-page novel with every month and every year. My other three whole-life novels are told in the first person, so nothing can happen and itas still interesting because of the voice. I was conscious that writing The Romantic in the third person meant that things had to keep happening, even at the end of Cashelas life. What I came to understand was that 19th-century lives were incredibly crowded; Anthony Trollope went to Australia twice and America six times.

The knives may be out after a dismal run but there is no appetite to sack the England manager before the World Cup

The inquest was under way at San Siro and Gareth Southgate knew the questions would be direct. It had been one of those bad England nights when the team looked static, unable to build with the ball, the connections elusive.

The 1-0 Nations League defeat by Italy on Friday was deserved, largely inevitable, and it followed a quartet of vague or non-performances in the competition in June, which had brought two defeats and two draws a a substantial body of evidence for the prosecution.

The biggest compliment that can be paid to Scotland is that they did not panic when the Republic of Ireland threatened to rip up their script. Only a draw was required from this clash for the same outcome from Tuesdayas meeting with Ukraine to see Steve Clarkeas men seal top spot in Group B1 of the Nations League. It is lost on nobody in these parts that the Scots would pass relegated England while en route to Group A.

Scotland fell a goal behind to Ireland, triggering the kind of nervousness which is natural for a supporter base who have known the darkest of times. New Scotland, though, means new attitudes; a composed second 45 minutes secured the win that earlier looked improbable. Scotland still need to avoid defeat in Krakow but they will fly to Poland in fine spirits.

• St Helens 24-12 Leeds
• Saints run in four tries to make history

Tommy Makinson ran the length of the field to salute the St Helens supporters. Jake Wingfield, playing in his first Grand Final, broke down in tears. James Roby, who has seen this stage so many times, simply stood and took it all in. The range of emotions were contrasting but you knew every single St Helens player, in that moment, knew exactly what they had just managed to achieve.

Two Super League titles in a row is no mean feat. Three is borderline impossible. But four? That is genuine rugby league history you have just witnessed being written. For context, only the all-conquering Wigan team of the early-1990s have won four league titles in a row. Until now. Their great rivals have just joined them on that list and it is perhaps typical of this great St Helens side - perhaps the greatest ever - that they managed to take any nerves out of it by the end.

The 47,367 flipped the script as they delighted the north London derbyas combatants with their energy and atmosphere

Veni, vidi, Vivianne. They came, 47,367 of them all told, shattering the Womenas Super League attendance record. Watched and roared as Arsenal turned this north London derby into a painless rout. And then, as Vivianne Miedema left the pitch after scoring two goals in each half, rose to applaud the performance of a Dutch master.

Until Saturday, the record for a WSL game was 38,272, when these teams met at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2019. But long before kick-off, as the streets around the Emirates Stadium filled up with families and excited kids off to their first game, it was clearly going to be smashed.

• Third ODI: India 169; England 153; India win by 16 runs (India 3-0)
• Crowd boos as Deepti Sharma runs out Dean at non-strikeras end

India beat England in the final ODI at Lordas on Saturday by 16 runs but the match ended in controversial fashion after Deepti Sharma ran out Charlie Dean at the non-strikers end, leading to a chorus of boos from the crowd.

England had looked out for the count after collapsing to 53 for five before the first drinks break was even taken, chasing just 170, but a remarkable rearguard effort from Dean (47) a who calmly added 35 runs with Freya Davies for the final wicket a looked like it might see them over the line until Sharmaas intervention in the 44th over.

• Worcester 39-5 Newcastle
• Hosts get five tries in what may be last game before suspension

Eighteen years ago this month, Worcester made their first Premiership appearance, arriving in the top flight with excitement and aspirations, buoyed by the benevolence of their backer Cecil Duckworth. Optimism was in the air and it is worth glancing back to those more innocent times because, as fate would have it, the visitors that day were Newcastle Falcons. If this rousing victory over the same opposition, nearly 20 years on, does prove to be Worcesteras last game in the Premiership there will have been serendipity in how they have come full circle.

There was a far happier outcome too, at least in the short term. In 2004 they were comfortably beaten whereas on Saturday they out-thought, out-fought and eventually overwhelmed Newcastle, scoring five well-worked tries and delivering a reminder that Steve Diamond has quality at his disposal if the house can be put in order. Beforehand Diamond had promised Worcester would be out on the town come what may against the Falcons, in recognition of how difficult the last weeks have been and as a reward for the players and coaches remaining united. Youad imagine it will taste a little sweeter in victory before thoughts turn to what the future holds.

Questions remain for Lionel Scalonias side but there is a growing sense that a glorious finale could be on the cards

Argentina went to Russia in 2018 with a sense it was now or never. They had lost in the final of the previous World Cup. A great generation of attacking talent was ageing. Lionel Messi was 31 and two years earlier had flirted with international retirement after a second successive Copa AmA(c)rica final defeat to Chile. And at last the Argentinian Football Association had managed to appoint, in Jorge Sampaoli, a dynamic and progressive coach who promised to restore the days of Bielsista optimism.

Messi scored one brilliant goal, against Nigeria and there was a spirited exit against France in the last 16, but the last World Cup was a huge disappointment. There was a drab draw against Iceland and an embarrassingly comprehensive defeat to Croatia.

• Ballydoyle trainer grabs the glory in Newmarket Group One race
• Commonwealth Cup rather than a Guineas the more likely target

Aidan OaBrien may not have had as memorable a season by his normal high standards but the Ballydoyle stableas two-year-old colts delivered him a one-two in the Group One Middle Park Stakes on Saturday at Newmarket with Blackbeard sprinting clear from The Antarctic.

There was a major worry before the race as the eventual winner did his normal trick of getting thoroughly worked up in the preliminaries and consequently drifted out to 100-30 in the betting, but he kicked clear in the closing stages to win by two lengths and became the third horse to win a Group One in Britain for the trainer this year.

Republicans have made it very clear that they arenat going to stop at abortion: theyare coming for birth control and fertility treatments

Going through fertility treatment isnat fun at the best of times: itas expensive, invasive and emotionally exhausting. Ever since Roe v Wade was overturned earlier this year, however, getting fertility treatments in the US has become exponentially more stressful; the end of Roe triggered a spate of new personhood bills in Republican states which define a fertilized egg or embryo as a legal human entity. If you know anything about in vitro fertilization (IVF), which Iam not sure any of the men drafting these personhood bills do, youall immediately know that makes IVF hugely complex. Numerous embryos are usually created during the IVF process as not all will be genetically viable. Unviable embryos, along with embryos that arenat donated or frozen for later use, will be disposed. If these collections of cells are considered people then, according to the personhood laws, youave committed a crime by disposing of them.

In 2014, one audio series kickstarted the podcast revolution and reinvigorated true crime documentaries. Serial was a US audio series created by Julie Snyder, Ira Glass and Sarah Koenig. It examined the murder in 1999 of an American teenager, Hae Min Lee, and the conviction and jailing of her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed.

Thanks to the questions Serial raised about that murder investigation and trial, Syed had his conviction overturned last week.

Boris Johnson was far more eco-conscious than recent Conservative predecessors. But this mini-budget is a reversion to type

The dash for growth by Kwasi Kwarteng means unshackling City bankers and property developers from the taxes and regulations that prevent them from paving over whatas left of Britainas green and pleasant land.

The humble concrete mixer will be elevated to exalted status. There will be more executive homes built on greenfield sites. More distribution sheds dotted along busy A-roads. And more urban renewal of the kind that involves tearing down buildings in a plume of dust and carbon emissions to replace them with something not much better, at least not in environmental terms.

The scale of the Kremlinas strategic failures in Ukraine is epic a and the exploded myth of Russian power may lead to the unravelling of the regime

More than ever, Vladimir Putin resembles the captain of the Titanic: steaming full speed ahead towards disaster, deluded by inaccurate assumptions about his shipas invincibility, and blind to darkly looming hazards.

Everything the captain thinks he knows is wrong, the modern-day treasure hunter, Brock Lovett, says in the 1997 movie. And like the Titanicas lookouts, wrong-headed Putin does not spot the iceberg until too late. Thereas no avoiding catastrophe.

Support for strikes demonstrates a shifting public mood. Unless politicians listen, something more sinister may fill the vacuum

The past few weeks of British politics have been very strange indeed. As one of the hottest summers on record drew to a close, a wave of militant strike action propelled union leaders on to the national stage for the first time in decades. A new mass movement to combat the cost of living crisis attracted tens of thousands of supporters within days. With Britain facing an imminent recession, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng announced tax cuts for the rich in a afiscal eventa that felt like a surreal exercise in looting the country.

Itas clear that nobody in the political mainstream is offering solutions that are remotely up to the task of dealing with the climate crisis, the imminent recession or the spiralling costs of energy bills and other basic essentials. The new Conservative leadership has a policy agenda that would have seemed like satire or science fiction in the 1980s, while Labour has become so preoccupied with its factional war against the left that it seems not to care that Jeremy Corbynas core policy programme always enjoyed broad popular support.

Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams are the authors of Hegemony Now, published by Verso.

The new chancellor launches his economic plan for growth. But is it just so much hot air?

aC/ You can order your own copy of this cartoon

Supposing the one per cent read newspapers, some of them may have become dimly aware of a cultural glut, last week examined by my colleague Vanessa Thorpe, of entertainment about the greed and awfulness of the one per cent.

Though theyave clearly been some time in the making, these aangry attacks on privilege and wealtha, as Vanessa called them, arrive at an excellent time for British audiences currently denied any prospect of real-life economic justice or retribution. The experience could be less cathartic for any of the real-life super-rich accidentally subjected to viewing in which their yachts are disrespected and their tribe mocked, harangued, occasionally murdered.

The software giant paying vastly over the odds for a small but strategically threatening company should alarm US regulators

The big tech news in a slow week was that the software giant Adobe is planning to pay the unconscionable sum of $20bn (APS18bn) to acquire a small company called Figma. Why is this news? Well, first of all, thereas the price a way above any rational valuation of Figma. Second, thereas the question that we have finally learned to ask about tech mergers and acquisitions: is there a competition or antitrust issue here somewhere?

Weall come to the price later, but at first sight, the answer to the second question would seem to be no: the two companies are not direct competitors. Adobe dominates the market in software for creating and publishing digital and printed material a graphics, photography, illustration, animation, multimedia/video, motion pictures and print. If youave ever used Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat Reader or opened a pdf (portable document format), then youave used an Adobe product.

At least two people killed and 120,000 households without power as authorities urge caution for more landslides and flooding

A typhoon lashed central Japan on Saturday with torrential rain and fierce winds, killing two and leaving tens of thousands of households without power, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Shizuoka city, south-west of Tokyo, was hit especially hard, seeing a record 417mm (16.42 inches) of precipitation since the rain started on Thursday, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

Every cabinet minister to benefit from change that ends top rate of tax for people on more than APS150,000 a year

An estimated 41 MPs will benefit from the scrapping of the top rate of income tax a including every cabinet minister.

Owing to MPsa standard pay increasing to APS84,144 from April this year, 2022-23 would have been the first year that senior government ministers would have to pay the 45p rate of tax.

BBC presenter received death threats after false reports that she was to replace Sue Barker on A Question of Sport

Alex Scott said she has been left in fear of her life by trolling and racist abuse, which has taken the pundit and former footballer to some adark placesa.

The 37-year-old, who played for Arsenal and England and had a key role on the BBC commentary team during the Lionessesa winning run in the Womenas Euros, said she received death threats last summer after it was incorrectly reported that she was to replace Sue Barker as the presenter of A Question of Sport.

Experts and campaigners write open letter to justice secretary and Sentencing Council warning of dangers of giving birth in jail

A coalition of campaigners and health experts is calling for an urgent review into the sentencing of pregnant female offenders, warning of the increased risk of adverse outcomes to babies born in custody.

An open letter to Brandon Lewis, the justice secretary, and the Sentencing Council for England and Wales warns that pregnant women in jail suffer severe stress and highlights evidence suggesting they are more likely to have a stillbirth. The signatories include the Royal College of Midwives and Liberty.

Two of those injured in collision in Gonalston taken to Queenas medical centre with potentially life-threatening injuries

Two teenagers have been killed and three other people injured in a car crash in Nottinghamshire.

A 17-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man were pronounced dead at the scene after the two-car collision in Gonalston at 10.45pm on Thursday.

Relatives say delay in seeing bodycam footage of officers using stun gun on Oladeji Omishore at Chelsea Bridge was acruela

The family of a man who died after plunging into the River Thames during a confrontation with police who repeatedly fired a Taser at him have condemned their acruela three-month wait to see bodycam footage.

The police watchdog launched an investigation, which is still under way, into Oladeji Adeyemi Omishoreas death after officers were called to reports of a disturbance on Chelsea Bridge, London, on the morning of 4 June.

Exclusive: Labour vows to end aTory procurement racketa and reward firms that pay taxes responsibly

One in every six public procurement contracts issued by the government over a five-year period were won by businesses with connections to a tax haven, analysis has found.

The companies behind the taxpayer-funded deals were owned by firms that were at least partly domiciled in one of 27 tax havens around the world, including the British Virgin Islands, Panama and Jersey.

Home secretary directs police chiefs to focus on acommon-sensea policing over diversity and inclusion initiatives

Suella Braverman has ordered police chiefs to spend less time on asymbolic gesturesa and more time on policing.

In an open letter to police leaders in England and Wales, in which she set out her policing agenda, the new home secretary said diversity and inclusion initiatives ashould not take precedencea over tackling crime.

Latest Guardian University Guide shows leading trio are in league of their own for undergraduate courses

• The 2023 rankings in full

Oxbridge is being replaced at the apex of UK universities by aStoxbridgea after St Andrews overtook Oxford and Cambridge at the top of the latest Guardian University Guide.

It is the first time the Fife university has been ranked highest in the Guardianas annual guide to undergraduate courses, pushing Oxford into second and Cambridge into third.

Police watchdog has been called in to investigate death of John Winton McNab, 86, found near Invermoriston in Highlands

The police watchdog has been called in to investigate the death of an elderly man whose body was found in a crashed car two days after he was reported missing.

John Winton McNab, 86, was the driver of a grey Mercedes B discovered in the Highlands at about 1.20pm on Sunday 18 September.

Bee bus stops first appeared in the Dutch city of Utrecht. Now the UK is planning for more than 1,000 and there is growing interest across Europe and in Canada and Australia

Butterflies and bees are getting their own transport network as abee bus stopsa start to pop up around UK cities and across Europe. Humble bus shelter roofs are being turned into riots of colour, with the number of miniature gardens a full of pollinator-friendly flora such as wild strawberries, poppies and pansies a set to increase by 50% in the UK by the end of this year.

Leicester is leading the charge with 30 bee bus stops installed since 2021. Derby has 18, and there are others in Southhampton, Newcastle, Sunderland, Derby, Oxford, Cardiff and Glasgow. Brighton council installed one last year after a petition was signed by almost 50,000 people.

At least 35 dead in eight nights of demonstrations after death of Mahsa Amini in custody, state media report

Iranas president, Ebrahim Raisi, has said authorities must adeal decisively with those who oppose the countryas security and tranquilitya, Iranian state media have reported.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets of Tehran and other major cities for eight straight nights since the death of Mahsa Amini.

Justice department gains access to about 100 documents with classified markings that the FBI seized from the resort

Attempts by Donald Trump to delay the criminal investigation into his unlawful retention of government secrets have been largely thwarted after the Department of Justice regained access to about 100 documents with classified markings that the FBI seized from the former US presidentas Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The US appeals court for the 11th circuit this week set aside key parts of an order by a federal judge that barred the department from using the documents in its investigation, and additionally ruled that Trumpas lawyers need not review the documents over potential privilege concerns.

Cayman Islands and Jamaica brace while Florida governor declares emergency, with storm headed to state by midweek

Florida residents on Saturday were bracing for a heavy tropical storm that weather experts warn could become a major hurricane.

Tropical storm Ian is poised to intensify into a hurricane within a few days after forming on Friday over the southern Caribbean. The storm could cross over into parts of Cuba before heading to Florida by the middle of next week, according to forecasts.

Pontiff tells young people he is pinning his hopes on their efforts to safeguard environment and help the poor

Pope Francis has called for courage in abandoning fossil fuels and lamented that older generations did not know how to protect the planet and secure peace.

The pope, who was visiting Assisi, the birthplace of his namesake saint who was close to nature, told young people on Saturday that he was pinning his hopes on their efforts in working to save the planet and to make the worldas economy more attentive to the poor.

Canadian actor had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder over shooting near Vancouver

The actor Ryan Grantham a featured in the CW show Riverdale and the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid a has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting his mother in their home in Canada.

Grantham, 24, was sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to second-degree murder, which carries an automatic sentence of life in prison, reported the New York Times.

Bid to move pop staras Colombian tour date to capitalas biggest venue has united supporters of clubs who play there

Rival Colombian football fans, more used to hurling insults at each other on the terraces, have united against a common enemy: Harry Styles. At stake is what takes place at BogotA!as football stadium on 27 November: either the Colombian football championship final, or the latest leg of the British pop staras world tour.

Styles had been scheduled to play in the car park of an amusement park in the capital city, but fans started a social media campaign for the concert to be moved after pop star Dua Lipaas show there last weekend was plagued by logistical and technical problems.

Fresh wave of protests across Russia on Saturday after Putinas apartial mobilisationa of civilian men

• See all our Ukraine coverage

Russia launched renewed strikes on Ukrainian cities on Saturday, as Moscowas mobilisation drive to refresh its struggling war effort continued to provide scenes of chaos across Russia.

Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the city of Zaporizhzhia, killing one person and injuring seven others, and said a total of three people were killed and 19 injured in strikes across the south and east of the country.

Demonstrations that began with death of Mahsa Amini while detained by morality police pose biggest threat to regime in 13 years

Iranas president has vowed to adeal decisivelya with protests that are gathering momentum across much of the country one week after the death of a woman in custody who had been detained by the morality police.

Demonstrations have spread to most of Iranas 31 provinces and almost all urban centres, pitting anti-government demonstrators against regime forces, including the military, and posing the most serious test to the hardline stateas authority in more than 13 years.

Yareni Rios-Gonzales hospitalized after officers fail to pull her from car they had parked on tracks

A dramatic video released by Colorado authorities shows the moment a freight train hit a police patrol cruiser parked on the train tracks with a person handcuffed in the backseat.

The video, which was released on Friday by the Platteville and Fort Lupton police departments, shows how Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, 20, was hurt after officers from both agencies detained her in a patrol car on 16 September as they searched her pickup truck for weapons.

Revered spiritual jazz saxophonist was known for his unique playing style and collaborations with John Coltrane

Pharoah Sanders, the revered American jazz saxophonist, has died aged 81. The news was confirmed by Sandersa label, Luaka Bop, on Twitter.

aWe are devastated to share that Pharoah Sanders has passed away,a the labelas statement read. aHe died peacefully surrounded by loving family and friends in Los Angeles earlier this morning. Always and forever the most beautiful human being, may he rest in peace.a

With more than 400 people dying daily, many experts say his remarks were premature a but it is unclear what impact they may have

Joe Bidenas recent declaration that the Covid-19 pandemic was over was premature, according to several infectious disease experts, but there was not a consensus among them about whether the remarks will cause a significant change in Americansa attitude towards the virus and lead to worse public health outcomes.

Thatas partly because Biden was simply catching up to most of the US population, who see how much lower the case and death counts are than earlier in the pandemic, and as such, have stopped wearing masks in public and now gather regularly indoors, the experts said.

County prosecutor will decide whether Republican Kristi Noem broke an untested law to rein in questionable use of state plane

South Dakotaas governor, Kristi Noem, was returning from an official appearance in Rapid City in 2019 when she faced a decision: overnight in the capital of Pierre, where another trip would start the next day, or head home and see her son attend his high school prom?

The Republican governor chose the latter, a decision that eventually cost taxpayers about $3,700 when the state airplane dropped her off near her home and then returned the next day to pick her up.

Cayman Islands and Jamaica brace while Florida governor declares emergency, with storm headed to state by midweek

Florida residents on Saturday were bracing for a heavy tropical storm that weather experts warn could become a major hurricane.

Tropical storm Ian is poised to intensify into a hurricane within a few days after forming on Friday over the southern Caribbean. The storm could cross over into parts of Cuba before heading to Florida by the middle of next week, according to forecasts.

Giorgia Meloni, who leads Brothers of Italy, looks likely to become the first woman to head a government

Italians were braced for seismic change on Saturday, on the eve of an election forecasted to hand Italy the most rightwing government since the second world war.

Giorgia Meloni, the head of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, is widely tipped to become the countryas first woman to head a government.

Several clinics halt procedure as dual measures, including 19th-century ban with no exception for rape or incest, take effect

Almost all abortions became illegal in Arizona on Saturday, after a new law banning abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy took effect and a judge lifted an almost 50-year-old injunction that blocked a near-total ban on abortions from being enforced in the state.

Judge Kellie Johnson of Pima countyas superior court released a ruling on Friday that allowed the enforcement of the decades-old ban, a day before a new law that would ban most procedures after 15 weeks was scheduled to take effect, reported the Washington Post.

Storm surges and heavy rainfall expected before weather event gradually weakens this weekend, say meteorologists

A powerful storm has hit eastern Canada with hurricane-force winds nearly a week after devastating parts of the Caribbean.

The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said the centre of Fiona, which transformed from a hurricane into a post-tropical cyclone late on Friday was crossing eastern Nova Scotia, bringing high winds and heavy rains.

With water a precious commodity in California, residents are turning to native plants a saving money without sacrificing beauty

A lush green lawn has long been a symbol of the perfect American home. But as a prolonged drought reshapes life in California, many residents are rethinking what a beautiful yard should look like.

In Los Angeles, which imposed sweeping restrictions on outdoor water use this year, thirsty lawns are out - and California native plants are in. From mansions in Brentwood to old family homes in Koreatown to neighborhoods in South LA, Angelenos are installing climate-friendly yards full of California buckwheat, toyon, sage, and succulents, and building in garden features to help conserve and retain the stateas limited rainwater.

Juan is one of a number of asylum seekers being sent from Texas to other states without choice after long, dangerous treks to the US

Five Venezuelan men walked together in the dark, trying to find the address US immigration officials had given them. It was almost midnight in downtown Sacramento, a city they had never heard of and an unexpected destination.

One of them, Juan, 29, who asked for his real name to be withheld out of fear of jeopardizing his asylum request, had expected to end up in New York. Head spent more than a month on the journey from Venezuela to the US-Mexico border.

Fema makes individual assistance available to only 55 of the 78 municipalities on the island, leaving some feeling ignored

Six days after Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico, Alexiz and Roberto NAoA+-ez still donat know where their next meal is coming from.

The couple, whose home in Arecibo flooded during the storm, is relying on a neighboras cooking and some canned goods delivered by the government to get by.

There may be little distinction between the two, but lawmakers wonat listen and doctors are wary a and women pay the price

ZoA(c) Champion was 19 when she had an abortion. She was 26 when she realized it was an abortion.

Champion, who was sitting her high school exams in France at the time, had developed a pregnancy outside the uterus, threatening to rupture her fallopian tubes a a condition medically known as an ectopic pregnancy. The doctors intervened immediately, ending the pregnancy and saving her life.

Ukrainians in newly liberated Balakliia describe how occupiers had been plotting the sham referendum on Moscowas annexation

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

Balakliiaas only functioning shop was packed. Residents who had spent six months under Russian occupation queued to buy bread, salami and frozen mackerel. aWhen the Russians arrived I lost 10 kilograms. My wife lost eight kilograms. There was almost nothing to eat for the first two months,a one customer, Valery, recalled. Showing off his reduced waistline, he joked grimly: aThatas the upside of Moscow rule.a

Russian troops came to Balakliia in March. This was soon after Vladimir Putinas invasion. They raised a Russian tricolour above the modern brick town administration building, and parked their tanks in a sprawling factory. Two weeks ago the Ukrainian army chased them out in a dramatic counter-offensive. Kyiv reclaimed almost all of the Kharkiv region, an area half the size of Wales.

As men of fighting age flee the draft, observers say Kremlin should be more worried about mounting anger away from the cities

• See all our Ukraine coverage

In a caricature by the countryas most prominent political cartoonist, Sergey Elkin, Vladimir Putin is standing on top of the Kremlin wall with his arms outstretched.

aSo what else do I need to do for you guys to finally start rebelling,a Putin asks, with a look of desperation.

The scale of the Kremlinas strategic failures in Ukraine is epic a and the exploded myth of Russian power may lead to the unravelling of the regime

More than ever, Vladimir Putin resembles the captain of the Titanic: steaming full speed ahead towards disaster, deluded by inaccurate assumptions about his shipas invincibility, and blind to darkly looming hazards.

Everything the captain thinks he knows is wrong, the modern-day treasure hunter, Brock Lovett, says in the 1997 movie. And like the Titanicas lookouts, wrong-headed Putin does not spot the iceberg until too late. Thereas no avoiding catastrophe.

UN says Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine; Finland bars Russian tourists amid long queues to cross border after Putinas military mobilisation

• See all our Ukraine coverage

A Guardian interview earlier this month with the late author of the Wolf Hall trilogy was one to be forever grateful for, says its writer

It was not even three weeks ago that I spent time with Hilary and she seemed absolutely well: lively, full of enthusiasm, fun. But the main thing on her mind was that she and her husband, Gerald McEwen, were due to move to Ireland, where I live, and she was so looking forward to it.

She wrote me a lovely note after the interview, imagining with pleasure her future in Ireland. Shead been thinking of moving for a few years a partly because she has Irish heritage and partly as a result of Brexit and the general political situation in the UK.

McDonaldas has shelved its meat-free burger trial and stock in one of the major manufacturers has dipped nearly 70%

At the start of the year, McDonaldas launched a plant-based burger asizzled on a flat-iron grill, then topped with slivered onions, tangy pickles, crisp shredded lettuce, Roma tomato slices, ketchup, mustard, mayo and a slice of melty American cheesea. For a while, it looked like a glimpse of the future.

The US test run of the McPlant burger was quietly shelved last month (it is still available in some markets, including the UK) in one of a series of setbacks for a meatless-meat industry that only a year ago was claiming it could change the great American menu for ever.

The release of Adnan Syed, the focus of the first season of hit podcast Serial, comes at a time when the genre is focusing less on the individual and more on the system

On Monday afternoon, Adnan Syed walked free after a Maryland judge vacated his 2000 conviction for the murder of Hae Min Lee, his ex-girlfriend, when both were teenagers in 1999. Syed exited the Baltimore courthouse to cheers a in part because many people have worked for years, sometimes decades, to free a man who has always maintained his innocence. And in part because Syed is a celebrity as the subject of the first season of Serial, the mega-hit documentary podcast that essentially kicked off the genreas boom in the mid-2010s.

On the surface, itas easy to connect Syedas release to Serialas influence as the bedrock true crime podcast. The showas first season, released in 2014, did bring mass public attention to the case. It was downloaded more than 68m times in less than a year, became the first podcast to win a Peabody award and spawned countless imitators. Serial became part of the 2010s cultural ether a a lightning rod for discussions on the ethics of true crime investigations as entertainment, fodder for crowdsourced sleuthing online and an aesthetic touchstone for a certain media era. Host Sarah Koenigas parsing of arcane details and soothing narration a journalistic authority cut with personal confession, grappling with the case in real time a became true crime podcast de rigueur. (The Hulu comedy Only Murders in the Building is essentially one long parody of the Serial-style podcast.) The NYPD tried to cash in on the true crime podcast boom with its own in-house production, Break in the Case.

As a sleep coach, I regularly meet people who have atried everythinga to get more sleep. They have read every article on the subject and devoured every tip on the internet and then adjusted and readjusted their routines based on the advice they have found. Many of them are doing all the right things a spending time winding down before bed, curbing screen time, meditating a but still they struggle. The problem is that when it comes to sleep, unlike almost every other area of life, effort is not rewarded. In fact, it is actively punished. The more you try, the less you are likely to succeed.

This is because sleep is a passive process, like breathing or digesting. It cannot be controlled and nothing we can do can force it to happen. If we can stop trying, sleep will naturally follow. But not trying to sleep is extremely hard, especially when you are exhausted and desperate. Instead, I get my clients to shift their attention towards the main causes of sleeplessness: lack of sleep drive and hyperarousal. Tackling these two factors (which happily respond very well to a bit of effort) can then create the right conditions to allow sleep to happen all on its own.

Five people share their experiences of the protests sparked by Mahsa Aminias death in custody, as hope of real change grows

The internet has been shut off in parts of Iran and access to platforms such as WhatsApp and Instagram blocked after seven days of protest in cities across Iran.

The uprisings were sparked on 16 September by the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by the morality police for wearing her hijab in an aimpropera way. Iranian state television has said 17 people have died, though the number could be higher.

Bid to move pop staras Colombian tour date to capitalas biggest venue has united supporters of clubs who play there

Rival Colombian football fans, more used to hurling insults at each other on the terraces, have united against a common enemy: Harry Styles. At stake is what takes place at BogotA!as football stadium on 27 November: either the Colombian football championship final, or the latest leg of the British pop staras world tour.

Styles had been scheduled to play in the car park of an amusement park in the capital city, but fans started a social media campaign for the concert to be moved after pop star Dua Lipaas show there last weekend was plagued by logistical and technical problems.

Sending people to Marthaas Vineyard and Rwanda is a bid to paint them as marauders. But wealthy economies depend on their presence

In the United States, the Republican governors of Texas, Florida and Arizona are bussing and flying migrants from their states to states governed by Democrats. In the United Kingdom, the government plans to deport migrants to holding facilities in Rwanda, an authoritarian country 4,000 miles to the south, which only a generation ago experienced one of the worst genocides in recent human history.

In one wealthy country after another, migrants are being made into a spectacle, both for domestic political advantage and to deter other migrants from attempting to come.

Republicans have made it very clear that they arenat going to stop at abortion: theyare coming for birth control and fertility treatments

Going through fertility treatment isnat fun at the best of times: itas expensive, invasive and emotionally exhausting. Ever since Roe v Wade was overturned earlier this year, however, getting fertility treatments in the US has become exponentially more stressful; the end of Roe triggered a spate of new personhood bills in Republican states which define a fertilized egg or embryo as a legal human entity. If you know anything about in vitro fertilization (IVF), which Iam not sure any of the men drafting these personhood bills do, youall immediately know that makes IVF hugely complex. Numerous embryos are usually created during the IVF process as not all will be genetically viable. Unviable embryos, along with embryos that arenat donated or frozen for later use, will be disposed. If these collections of cells are considered people then, according to the personhood laws, youave committed a crime by disposing of them.

The Brothers of Italy leader denies she is a fascist but clings to the Mussolini-era slogan aGod, homeland, familya

Giorgia Meloni presents a danger to the democratic balance in Europe. Her leadership looks to be the antithesis of what Italy needs a and not just at this difficult moment.

The danger arises for Europe because Italy has always been a laboratory: it has foreshadowed the crises of other countries. Italy had Mussolini before Hitler and the leftwing extremist Red Brigades before Action Directe appeared in France and the Red Army Faction followed suit in Germany. Italy had Berlusconi before the US got Trump. And after years of Berlusconi misrule, Italy produced the Five Star Movement, the first populist party led by a comedian, before the rest of Europe caught up. Five Staras agenda was political disruption, often without any thought to the consequences.

Questions remain for Lionel Scalonias side but there is a growing sense that a glorious finale could be on the cards

Argentina went to Russia in 2018 with a sense it was now or never. They had lost in the final of the previous World Cup. A great generation of attacking talent was ageing. Lionel Messi was 31 and two years earlier had flirted with international retirement after a second successive Copa AmA(c)rica final defeat to Chile. And at last the Argentinian Football Association had managed to appoint, in Jorge Sampaoli, a dynamic and progressive coach who promised to restore the days of Bielsista optimism.

Messi scored one brilliant goal, against Nigeria and there was a spirited exit against France in the last 16, but the last World Cup was a huge disappointment. There was a drab draw against Iceland and an embarrassingly comprehensive defeat to Croatia.

• Cardsa Pujols hits 700th career home run, fourth to reach mark
• Only Bonds (762), Aaron (755) and Ruth (714) have totaled more

St Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols hit his 700th career home run on Friday night, connecting for his second drive of the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers and becoming the fourth player to reach the milestone in major league history.

The 42-year-old Pujols hit No 699 in the third inning, then launched No 700 in the fourth at Dodger Stadium.

• USA beat China 77-63 in Fiba Womenas World Cup group play
• WNBA MVP Aaja Wilson leads team shortly after arrival from US
• US have won 25 straight World Cup games dating back to 2006

Aaja Wilson admitted she was tired.

The WNBA MVP had just gotten to Australia less than 24 hours ago, fresh off a championship and the US were playing its toughest opponent of the World Cup.

Rafael Nadal, longtime rival and friend, was also weeping during an emotional retirement ceremony after final match

Throughout the final week of Roger Federeras life as a professional tennis player, he handled his emotions far better than he had envisioned. But at the end of his final match alongside his rival Rafael Nadal, a tense 4-6, 7-6 11-9 loss representing Team Europe against Team Worldas Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe at the Laver Cup in Londonas O2 Arena, the 41-year-old finally succumbed.

As the tears began to fall, alongside him Nadal wept, too. After 18 years of meeting each other on the court, contesting some of the fiercest battles in the biggest finals around the world, they spent the final moments of Federeras career on the same side.

• Fans queued for hours and prices increased during wait
• Organisers blame increased demand and promise review

The organisers of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone have apologised and pledged to improve their ticketing system after angering fans with the online process for the 2023 race.

Many fans were left frustrated and indignant at both the difficulty in purchasing tickets and the prices rising as they attempted to do so because of the new adynamic pricinga system.

Signing strong, bright characters means the manager now has the players to make up for a lack of personal magnetism

Football management is difficult a unless, of course, youare a football writer. But otherwise a if youare a football manager, say a itas one of the hardest jobs there is, which is why almost everyone who tries it fails somewhere along the line.

Thatas the case even if they end up at Manchester United, whose standing in the game since the second world war is down to the achievements of just two men: Matt Busby and Alex Ferguson. And what defines them, along with all the others whoave enjoyed even moderate success in the role a Tommy Docherty, Ron Atkinson, Louis van Gaal and JosA(c) Mourinho, as opposed to Frank OaFarrell, Dave Sexton, David Moyes and Ole Gunnar SolskjA|r a is charisma.

President of Pacific island nation urges countries to join bid for nonproliferation treaty at UN general assembly

• Vanuatu becomes first country to call for global treaty to phase out fossil fuels a video

The Pacific island of Vanuatu has called for a first-of-its-kind global treaty to phase out the use of fossil fuels in a bold public call at the UN general assembly.

Speaking in New York on Saturday, Nikenike Vurobaravu, the Vanuatuan president, urged countries to join his countryas call for a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty.

Pink Floyd co-founder's stance on Russia's war against Ukraine has sparked aindignationa in KrakA3w

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has cancelled concerts planned in Poland amid outrage over his stance on Russiaas war against Ukraine, Polish media reported on Saturday.

An official with the Tauron Arena in KrakA3w, where the musician was scheduled to perform two concerts in April 2023, said they would no longer take place.

Fletcher, who won Academy Award for her role of Nurse Ratched in 1975 film, dies, aged 88

Louise Fletcher, who won an Academy Award for her role in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckooas Nest, has died, aged 88.

Fletcher died in her sleep surrounded by family at her home in Montdurausse, France, her agent, David Shaul, told the Associated Press.

When the novelist first read Gretchen Gerzinaas 1995 book Black England, she discovered the complex and unexpected lives of black people in England before the abolition of slavery. Two decades on, the stories still have the power to astonish

I can say precisely where and when I first read Black England because I made a note of it on the flyleaf: Zadie Smith NW2 a99.
I was in the habit back then of using the books I bought as a record of the places and times of my life. Canat remember what I hoped to gain by it a but I am grateful now to recall that I must have been back in my mumas flat in Willesden Green, north-west London, and finishing my first novel. And if I was doing that, I must have bought Black England in Willesden Bookshop (now defunct) with a song in my heart. In order to write White Teeth, I was having to try to convince myself day after day, in what felt like a vacuum, that such an entity as aBlack Englanda or aBlack and Brown Englanda actually existed a and was worth writing a comic novel about. Itas incredible to think of now, but by 1999 Iad gone through 15 years of formal education, including a three-year English degree, without ever being given a book to study that made any reference whatsoever to the presence of individuals like me in the country in which I was born. Not a novel, not a history book. Nothing. Anything I read in that direction I had to either find myself, or rely on my enterprising mother to find. It was usually easier for both of us to work by analogy, and read things about our American diaspora cousins. So we generally did that. But here it was: Black England! And not a novel! History!

Into my perfect ignorance poured all these remarkable facts. Some were just delicious because I could hardly believe they were true: aBy 1596 there were so many black people in England that Queen Elizabeth I issued an edict demanding that they leave.a

Florence Pugh is phenomenal in Olivia Wildeas beautiful-looking Stepford Wives-like thriller. But the story barely holds together a ditto Harry Styles as the husband

Olivia Wildeas follow-up to her gleefully wayward directorial debut Booksmart has style to spare. From the honey-kissed sun-and-sand colour palette of sky blue and golden optimism to the costume work a a dream wardrobe of fitted 1950s cocktail dresses, accessorised with Brylcreemed boys in slick suits a the movie looks too good to be true. And thatas rather the point. If weave learned anything about 1950s picket fence perfection from American cinema, itas that things are rarely quite as glossy and flawless as they initially seem.

Life in the utopian desert town of Victory, home to Alice (Florence Pugh) and her husband, Jack (Harry Styles), might be an endless circuit of martinis and potluck parties. But, as Alice begins to suspect, there is something a little off with this impeccably tailored community and its charismatic founder, Frank (Chris Pine). So far, so Stepford a itas a serviceably pulpy thriller with a feminist subtext and, with its mysterious forbidden laboratory, a hint of sci-fi to come.

The Booker-shortlisted author on the enduring popularity of Olive Kitteridge, cancel culture and why she couldnat avoid US politics in her latest Lucy Barton novel

Elizabeth Strout had just finished writing her Booker-shortlisted novel Oh William!, revisiting her much loved character Lucy Barton, when the pandemic struck. Now, barely a year later, we have Lucy by the Sea, another in the series, which follows Lucy and her former husband William as they flee New York for a damp house in New England, to sit out the pandemic. aLucy and William were just so much in my head. I thought: OK, letas have him take her up to the coast of Maine, and stick them on this cliff and see what happens,a Strout says from her house in Brunswick, Maine, which she and her husband have made their permanent home since lockdown. The two novels awork togethera, she says. aI see them as a continuation of each other.a

Since My Name Is Lucy Barton in 2016, which introduced us to Lucy and her estranged mother, and the extreme poverty of her childhood, Strout has written another four books a quite a sprint for a writer who published her first novel, Amy and Isabelle, when she was 43, waiting another eight years before a follow-up, Abide With Me. While both were critically acclaimed, it was with her third novel, Olive Kitteridge, about a retired school teacher in Maine, that her career really took off. Her prickly, no-nonsense heroine with a fondness for proclaiming aHellas bells!a became an unlikely hit and byword for a kind of New England melancholy orneriness. The novel won a Pulitzer prize in 2009 and resulted in a devoted readership, helped along by an Emmy-winning HBO series starring Frances McDormand. Oliveas many fans will be delighted to know she pops up in this new novel (sheas now in a retirement home) inspiring another shoe-stealing stunt.

After his death in 2016, Rickman left a trove of revealing journals. In this exclusive extract, he recounts his 10 years playing Professor Snape a and the many political and Hollywood dramas along the way

aC/ aAn unbelievable Die Hard rip-offa: two decades of Rickmanas withering film reviews

From 1972, Alan Rickman kept a pocket diary in which he noted appointments, anniversaries, opening nights and addresses. In 1992, he started to produce a much fuller account of his life and work and bought diaries from a local stationeras that gave him a page a day to play with. These number 26 volumes, several of which are colourfully and beautifully illustrated.

Why he kept a diary is unclear. Diarists come in all shapes, and their reasons for recording their lives are similarly diverse. Some people want to bear witness to earth-shattering events while others are content to detail what appears to be trivia but which, with the passage of time, acquires enduring significance. What follows is an edited account of the nearly 11 years defined by Rickmanas role as Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films.
Alan Taylor, editor of the diaries

Royal drama, which will star Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce, will start streaming on 9 November

The fifth series of Netflixas royal drama The Crown will launch on 9 November, it has been announced.

The date was shared during Netflixas Tudum global fan event, which showcased upcoming series and films from the streamer a including a sneak peek at the third series of Bridgerton, and a first-look at Shonda Rhimesa Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, a prequel centred on Queen Charlotteas rise to prominence and power.

Gabriel Debenedetti masters the crosscurrents of the Democratic party as well as relations between two presidents

Gabriel Debenedetti is the national correspondent for New York magazine. His first book brings depth and context to the near-two-decade relationship between the 44th and 46th presidents. Under a telling subtitle, The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama, Debenedetti captures the two menas closeness a and distance.

The Long Alliance emphasizes that the pairas time in power together was not a buddy movie. Obama was the star. Biden played a supporting role until he too seized the brass ring, to send Donald Trump into exile.

The author on his latest awhole-lifea novel, the brutal realities of modern publishing and the inspirational influence of Catch-22

William Boyd, 70, is the author of 26 books, including Any Human Heart (2002) a adapted for television in 2010 with three actors playing the lead role of Logan Mountstuart a and Restless, the Costa novel of the year in 2006. His new book, The Romantic, is set in the 19th century and presents itself as a biographical fiction inspired by the personal papers of one Cashel Greville Ross, a Scots-born Irishman who fought at Waterloo, met Shelley, smuggled Greek antiquities and set out in search of the source of the Nile, among other adventures. Boyd, whom Sebastian Faulks has called athe finest storyteller of his generationa, grew up in Ghana and Nigeria and lives in London and the Dordogne, from where he spoke over Zoom.

Where did this novel begin?
My mid-20s were steeped in Romantic poetry because I spent eight years at Oxford not finishing a PhD on Shelley. Iave always felt that nothing is wasted, and I was asking myself how I could recycle this material when I read The Life of Henry Brulard, the fantastically modern-feeling autobiography by [the 19th-century French writer] Stendhal, who I donat think is much read in UK literary circles. He called himself a romantic because he kept falling in love a he felt it was a curse a and I decided that this store of knowledge I had about Romantic poets could gel with writing about someone with that kind of temperament.

How does writing a awhole lifea novel a this is your fourth a compare with writing your thrillers?
Itas more challenging. In a tightly structured spy novel like Restless, the plot machinery is part of the allure. Here, the narrative has to seem like itas happening randomly, like life, yet it canat flag: Cashel is 82 when he dies, and you canat write a 5,000-page novel with every month and every year. My other three whole-life novels are told in the first person, so nothing can happen and itas still interesting because of the voice. I was conscious that writing The Romantic in the third person meant that things had to keep happening, even at the end of Cashelas life. What I came to understand was that 19th-century lives were incredibly crowded; Anthony Trollope went to Australia twice and America six times.

(Legacy Recordings)
Outtakes from the trumpeteras Star People, Decoy and Youare Under Arrest albums, plus a live gig from 1983, continue Sonyas meticulous series

When Miles Davis died, in 1991, he left behind what has been called one of the greatest musical legacies of the 20th century. His discography runs to 400 pages, listing officially released records and a vast pile of dodgy bootlegs. Sonyas Legacy Recordings, which owns the rights to Davisas most abundant and inspired period (1955-85), have cleverly stolen the bootleggersa allure with their own legal and meticulously produced Bootleg Series. It gathers discarded gems from their Miles Davis archive, presenting them in chronological order and accompanied by a seriously good guidebook.

This is the seventh in the series, three CDs covering the years 1982-85. Most of the first two come from sessions that led to the albums Star People, Decoy and Youare Under Arrest, and they could have made another three from what was left behind. Small sample: Celestial Blues a three full versions, all quite different, never used. There are excellent Miles trumpet solos all over these tracks too, proving that head got his sound back after his late-70s breakdown. The third disc presents a live 1983 concert in Montreal, with his band of the time in top form.

Tom Kerridge, Max Halley and Erchen Chang have seen a lot of service. Who better to judge the accuracy of kitchens in film and TV, from Ratatouille to Stanley Tucci in Big Night?

Food and film are made for each other: the heat, the pace, the drama, the shouting. That is not to say kitchen life always plays out accurately on the big screen. Volatile chefs at high-end restaurants are often the only version on offer: take forthcoming thriller-satire The Menu (in cinemas 18 November), in which a couple (played by Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) go to a secluded island for some fine dining only to enter a dark funhouse orchestrated by a sadistic celebrity chef (Ralph Fiennes) instead.

Still, as sous chef Sydney Adams (played by Ayo Edebiri) puts it in new US drama The Bear, kitchens donat have to be places where aeverybody acts shittya. The eight-part series, which has garnered rave reviews in the States for its portrayal of day-to-day life in the kitchen, sees high-end chef Carmen aCarmya Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) return to Chicago to turn around the familyas failing sandwich shop after inheriting it from his late brother. Itas frantic and claustrophobic, with sharp knives and roaring flames in tight spaces, all set to a cacophony of acornera, abehinda, ayes, chef!a

aI am bad at anniversaries, but my wife is worse: most years she doesnat even remembera

For our 20th wedding anniversary (the china one, I think) I got my wife a candle and a Breaking Bad box set a series one and two. Luckily, she was already in a bad mood because shead spent all day at Thorpe Park with the kids and had her bag stolen. She cancelled her cards and we went for a curry.

On our 23rd wedding anniversary we went out for a curry again, this time to a restaurant so popular that when my wife called to make a reservation they said we could only have the table for two hours.

Franca, 38, graphic designer, meets Jimmy, 36, musician and property manager

Franca on Jimmy

What were you hoping for?
A memorable experience. And, if the stars aligned, to meet someone creative, kind and open-minded.

Itas just as well that this pear and chocolate tarte tatin and banoffee chocolate meringue are uncomplicated to make, because theyall be gone in a flash

Two easy baked puddings to see you through early autumn. First, my banana chocolate pavlova, a dreamy combination of banoffee on a chocolate-flavoured meringue a the combination of crunch, cream and caramel makes it outstandingly decadent, belying its simplicity. The tarte tatin, meanwhile, is ideal at this time of the year, using seasonal pears, which, when cooked with the star anise caramel, absorb the warmth of the spice. Dark chocolate and hazelnuts add drama, as do lashings of fresh cream or ice-cream.

Recipes extracted from Chetnaas Easy Baking: With a Twist of Spice, published by Octopus at APS20. To order a copy for APS17.40, go to guardianbookshop.com

The fast show: bream with red bulgur and spicy nuts; pasta topped with a herby rubble, olives, raisins and breadcrumbs; and soupy beans with roast mushrooms and a chive salsa

For some, a 30-minute meal is a super-quick fix. For others, itas a longer than they usually spend making dinner. For me, however, whether itas midweek or when we have friends over at the weekend, itas pretty much where Iam at. On the one hand, 30 minutes is no time at all a itas an episode of something quick on TV, a podcast listen or a catch-up with a buddy on the phone a but itas also enough time to make something special. And, if Iam feeling really organised, Iall call a friend or listen to a podcast while Iam cooking, so Iam smashing it, or at least feel as if I am, before supperas even served.

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Justice department gains access to about 100 documents with classified markings that the FBI seized from the resort

Attempts by Donald Trump to delay the criminal investigation into his unlawful retention of government secrets have been largely thwarted after the Department of Justice regained access to about 100 documents with classified markings that the FBI seized from the former US presidentas Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The US appeals court for the 11th circuit this week set aside key parts of an order by a federal judge that barred the department from using the documents in its investigation, and additionally ruled that Trumpas lawyers need not review the documents over potential privilege concerns.

FBI agents have questioned Lawrence Hecker, 91, who worked as a Catholic priest in New Orleans until 2002 despite the archdiocese being aware of molestation accusation since 1988

In arguably the clearest sign yet that he is under active criminal investigation, a retired Catholic priest from New Orleans who has been publicly accused of molesting acountlessa children but never charged has acknowledged that the FBI recently questioned him.

Lawrence Hecker, 91, declined to elaborate on exactly when FBI agents met with him or what they asked him as they reportedly lead an investigation into whether clerics serving a Louisiana region that is home to nearly half a million Catholics took children across state lines to abuse them. But, in a brief conversation with the Guardian, Hecker admitted that FBI agents had spoken with him.

Singer moved to tears as US president awards him National Humanities Medal after White House performance

Elton John was moved to tears after being awarded the National Humanities Medal for his work to end Aids by the US president following a special performance at the White House.

The singer performed on the White House lawn for the president and first lady and about 2,000 aeveryday history makersa on Friday night.

At least 35 dead in eight nights of demonstrations after death of Mahsa Amini in custody, state media report

Iranas president, Ebrahim Raisi, has said authorities must adeal decisively with those who oppose the countryas security and tranquilitya, Iranian state media have reported.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets of Tehran and other major cities for eight straight nights since the death of Mahsa Amini.

Survivors say boat that sank off Syrian coast had between 120 and 150 people onboard

The death toll from a boat that sank off the Syrian coast after sailing from Lebanon earlier this week has risen to 89, Syrian state TV said on Saturday.

The countryas transport ministry has quoted survivors as saying the boat left Lebanonas northern Minyeh region on Tuesday bound for Europe with between 120 and 150 people onboard.

Pontiff tells young people he is pinning his hopes on their efforts to safeguard environment and help the poor

Pope Francis has called for courage in abandoning fossil fuels and lamented that older generations did not know how to protect the planet and secure peace.

The pope, who was visiting Assisi, the birthplace of his namesake saint who was close to nature, told young people on Saturday that he was pinning his hopes on their efforts in working to save the planet and to make the worldas economy more attentive to the poor.